The invention concerns a conveying and lock system for introducing bulk material to a reactor, with the exclusion of gas, and while preventing gas exchange at low pressure differences, the system having a housing and a screw shaft disposed therein which is driven to transport the bulk material from an entrance opening to an outlet opening in the housing.
In a plurality of preparation processes involving bulk materials, it is either desirable or technically necessary that the process takes place without or substantially without air in order to be able to achieve the desired purpose or such that the amount of air transported along with the bulk material is reduced to a minimum before the bulk material is subject to further processing. An example thereof are processes with which high energy content fuels are generated from plastic waste. Towards this end, it is important that the plastic pieces or plastic waste which is to be processed be safely and reliably transported to a reactor, often with large temperature gradients between the inner region of a storage silo and the inner region of the reactor, while air which is trapped in the bulk material is substantially removed therefrom during transport.
In this connection, double pendulum flap systems or vane cell locks are known by means of which the above mentioned products can be transported into a reactor room substantially separated from the atmospheric side. The double pendulum flap system functions in a substantially continuous manner and the vane cell lock is continuous. Both systems are expensive and require extensive processing and control technology.
It is therefore the purpose of the present invention to present a conveying and lock system which removes gas from the transported bulk material to the extent that the material contains captured atmospheric air, wherein the gas phase in a container such as reactor is separated from the atmospheric gas phase.